The invention relates to an airbag module having a cover having horn foils located between a front and a back panel.
An airbag is typically housed in an airbag module. The airbag module has a cover and a housing. The cover has a front panel, at least a portion of which is elastically deformable, and a back panel. The back panel is preferably flexible. Front and back horn foils are located between the cover front and back panels. When the cover is on the housing, the back panel is located opposite the folded airbag.
To activate a car horn, the foils must make contact. This is typically accomplished by depressing the front panel toward the back panel. As the front panel is depressed is causes the cover to depress until it makes contact with the airbag. Such contact causes the front panel to compress against the back panel, thereby, causing the foils to make contact, activating the horn. For problem-free activation of the horn, a defined space must exist between the back panel of the airbag module cover and an airbag in the airbag module. If this space is too small, the airbag may press against the cover back panel and move it toward the front panel causing the foils to move closer to each other. In this regard, the slightest force against the front or back panels of the cover may cause the horn foils to make contact and accidentally trigger the horn. If the space between the back panel and the folded airbag is too great, the cover must be depressed deeply to obtain contact between the foils. In this regard, the forces required to activate the horn may be high and inconsistent.
In practice, an attempt has been made to eliminate these disadvantages through optimization of the folding of the airbag to consistently obtain a free space in the airbag module. However, because of the unavoidable tolerances of the airbag and the folding of the airbag, a consistent free space is difficult to obtain.